This application is based on Japanese patent application serial No. 2002-215789, filed in the Japan Patent Office on Jul. 24, 2002, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for removing an electric and/or electronic component from a substrate, and more particularly pertains to a hand-held tweezer type device for heating and reflowing solder at joints between the component and the substrate and removing the component from a substrate.
2. General Background and State of the Art
There is a need today for a quick and easy way to remove a defective electric or electronic component such as an integrated circuit from a substrate such as a printed circuit board, to allow repairing of an electric device including the substrate and component. To this end, a number of devices have been proposed and actually used in the industry.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,847 discloses a tweezer-like heater structure having heaters at the ends of two arms which arms are squeezed and moved toward each other to grasp the component between them. The arms of the prior art are pivoted about pivots with gears being respectively associated with the arms at the pivots, and the arms are linked with each other such that movement of one of the arms produces like movement of the other arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,101 also disclose a hand-held tweezer-type heating device having a pair of legs that are pivotally connected via a hinge to move toward each other to grasp an electronic component by means of a pair of conductive heating tip portions respectively connected to the legs via attachment pin portions.
However, those prior arts devices are constructed such that the pair of arms or legs pivot or swing toward and away from each other. Accordingly, it is difficult to grasp or hold the component with the heating tips being in parallel contact with the vertical plane of the component to ensure firm grasp of the component and efficient heat transfer. In other words, legs L of the prior art, as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B swing and approach a component from opposite sides of the component C to come into contact with the component C with a dead angle xcex1 leaving between the contact pieces P and the component C.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a handheld tweezer-type electric and/or electronic component removing device for heating and reflowing solder for removing an electric or electronic component from a substrate in an efficient way.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a handheld tweezer-type device which firmly grasps and efficiently heats an electronic or electric component on a substrate to reflow and remove the component from the substrate.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a handheld tweezer-type heating device that enables parallel contact between heating tips and vertical planes of an electronic or electric component.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a handheld device for heating and picking-up an electronic or electric component from a substrate efficiently, with tips of two legs of the device being quickly positioned to the component to be removed.
It is still further object of the present invention to provide a handheld electric or electronic component removing device which can be operated smoothly and easily.
To attain one or more of the above-mentioned objects, a handheld electric and/or electronic component removing device (hereinafter simply referred to as a component remover) according to the present invention, comprises a pair of arms respectively provided, at the free ends, with a contact piece for grasping and heating the electric or electronic component, and an interconnecting mechanism for interconnecting the arms in the manner that one arm moves toward and away from the other arm with the arms being kept in parallel with each other. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the interconnecting mechanism includes a parallel link.
The above and other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from reading the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the following drawings.